PGL Wallachia S9: Day 1 Recap

Published September 21, 2026

PGL Wallachia Season 9 began on September 19 with eight best-of-three series in Bucharest. Team Nemesis, Conventus Stellarum and LGD Gaming each won in a deciding map, but reached those results in very different ways. Nemesis recovered after losing its opener, Conventus survived a heavily damaged base, and LGD’s new combination started the event by overcoming Yakult Brothers. The opening round gave every team a result to carry into the Swiss group stage, without deciding any playoff places.

Team Nemesis had to manage a disrupted lineup before it could address the match itself. Two players had been unable to secure visas in time, requiring the Southeast Asian team to bring in replacements. Its opponent also had a temporary change, so neither side arrived with an entirely unchanged lineup. The stand-in arrangements were:

• Team Nemesis used Saberlight and Mo13ei as stand-ins after two players could not secure visas in time.
• 1win Team used Shad as a temporary replacement for Pure.

1win Team took the opening map, putting Nemesis one loss away from defeat in the series. Nemesis instead won the next two games to complete the reversal. In the decider, Saberlight’s Death Prophet finished with twelve kills, one death and ten assists. That performance helped the team turn an early deficit into a 2:1 series win, despite the personnel problems preceding the tournament.

Conventus Stellarum survive mega creeps

Conventus Stellarum and PlayTime split their first two maps, leaving the match to a third game that initially moved strongly in PlayTime’s favour. The South American team built a 24,000 net-worth advantage and destroyed enough barracks to gain mega creeps. Multiple Roshan kills added to that position, but PlayTime did not finish off the Ancient. The defensive effort included lorenof on Earth Spirit. Conventus held on despite the pressure in its base, keeping the deciding map alive long enough to find a winning fight. Ghost then used Lone Druid to destroy the tier-four towers and the Ancient, completing the comeback and securing the series.

The result put Conventus among the opening round’s winners, rather than in the group of teams starting with a loss. In the Swiss system, that distinction affects the next opponent: teams are paired with others on the same series record. The opening win did not carry Conventus directly into the playoffs. It still had to progress through further rounds, with three wins required to advance and three defeats resulting in elimination. The next-round draw paired Conventus with Xtreme Gaming. Other pairings produced by the first round included GamerLegion against LGD, Aurora against Natus Vincere, and Team Yandex against Team Nemesis. Those were the September 20 matchups set after the completed opening day, not additional results from September 19.

LGD Gaming begin with a series win

LGD Gaming’s first opponent was Yakult Brothers, and the series ended 2:1 in LGD’s favour. SumaiL was registered with the team alongside Sneyking, Davai and Wits, with the latter having previously played carry for PlayTime. Their first appearance at this event therefore ended with a win for the newly assembled group. That result placed LGD in the same winning score group as Nemesis and Conventus. The remaining five opening-day series are listed below. Three of them finished without a deciding map, while Aurora and Team Yandex had to play the full series distance. Together with the matches detailed above, they account for all sixteen teams that began the group stage.

Other opening-day series	Winner	Score
Xtreme Gaming vs Pibbles Corp	Xtreme Gaming	2:0
Natus Vincere vs Hokori	Natus Vincere	2:0
GamerLegion vs Team Cobra	GamerLegion	2:0
Aurora Gaming vs Pipsqueak+4	Aurora Gaming	2:1
Team Yandex vs MOUZ	Team Yandex	2:1

PGL Wallachia Season 9 continues in Bucharest through September 27, with a $1 million prize pool. The outcomes in this recap are a snapshot of the completed September 19 round, not the tournament’s live standings. Every entrant still had further Swiss-stage matches ahead after that opening day.